2008 Student Technology Surveys

2008 Educause (ECAR) Study

Every year, Judy Caruso, a member of the CIO office of my department at UW, conducts a survey of about 25k students to see what they think about technology. Here is the complete ECAR study. Here are some findings that caught my eye. Some of these numbers are for only for the University of Wisconsin Madison:

Only .3% don’t own a computer

Only .9% use dial up internet (the rest have broadband)

59.6 own an internet capable cell phone (16.4% plan to get one in one year)

18% of freshman spend more than 16 hours/week on social networking

Fine Arts use the least amount of technology well, Engineering uses the most

Students believe that instructors do NOT understand their IT skill level

47% of students believe that IT improves learning in courses, 37% were neutral

Only 26% believed that online recording of lectures tempt them to skip class more often

76% believe they like to learn through internet searches, followed by 50% for games

56.7% use social networking to set up conversation with other students about course material, only 1.7% use it for contacting their instructor